Pat Kennedy - Your Washington, DC Real Estate Connection

They say you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find your prince, and the same thing could be said of the little green guys who, with a metaphoric kiss, turn into buyers who actually reach the settlement table.

We drove up to Provincetown for a second round of parasailing, and I met these guys on a walk along the main drag. 

They got me thinking.

Could the first one could be my next sweetie.  And might the second buy a multi-million dollar house in Georgetown?

I've certainly kissed a lot of frogs in my day, and in bursts of optimism, I keep on trying!

Or was I merely looking for an excuse to work this two adorable hunks into a blog post?

For most of my life, I was pretty thin - stick thin in my 20's and 30's, then I had to work on it.  Now, as a woman of a certain age, my weight is a daily struggle, and removing the 30 or so pounds that stands between me and my favorite outfits is an elusive goal

OK, so I'm at the beach.  It's bathing suit time.  And while I've been to the beach a few times, it's been early in the morning or late afternoon in shorts and a t-shirt.  Today, I finally pulled on my bathing suit and headed for the sand and surf.  And I felt a little self-conscious.  I just decided that I am officially overweight.

When I stopped worrying about what I looked like and started to notice other beachgoers, something happened.  I was not the fattest person on the beach - not even close.  Virtually everyone who was not an obvious teenager looked out of shape and - forget the asthetics - unhealthy!

Both of my sisters, the sharers of my gene pool, are struggling, too.  And they are both into the Skinny Bitch diet.  My sister, Joan, has been doing a modified version of it, and she's shed about 15 pounds in the last three months.  My other sister has embraced the extreme macrobiotic version, and I'm not sure how she has done, but it may be too rigid for me.

Now, it's easy for me to implement a business plan for my real estate business.  I have a good plan and I just do it.  But changing my relationship to food is tricky. 

The last time I lost weight, I went to an evil genious doctor who had me on an entire medicine chest full of perscription drugs.  When I decided that I didn't want to be a druggie, I regained every ounce that I'd lost!

So, like many of the people I noticed on the beach today, I need a plan.  It's got to be a combination of diet and exercise, I know.  The exercise part I can figure out, but the diet part just eludes me.  The old cutting out either carbs or fat thing isn't working.  Maybe I'll have to add Skinny Bitch to my beach reading - which so far is mostly reading blogs. 

OK, somewhere on Active Rain there has to be a weight loss group!  And anyone who wants to offer any coaching -

So right now, Charlie, my young vacation buddy, and I are watching "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  I'm ready to commit a random act of violence for a Hershey kiss!

I've always wanted to go para-sailing.  I put parasailing on my bucket list, along with the hot air balloon ride over the Loire Valley in France.

It first captured my imagination on a trip to Barbados, but my traveling buddies said it was a not good idea down there - they advised waiting until I was back in the States where there were safety standards, however dubiously enforced.

So today, I met two new "trusted advisors", Christopher and Captain Adrian, who run Dennis Parasail in Dennis, Massachusetts. 

I went up twice.  Once with my favorite kid - the one I forgot to have - Charles Cutler.  He was camera shy, however.  My first ride was with Charles, and we were both a little terrified.   But as soon as we were up there, it was exhilarating!  Wow!  Whoo Hoo! 

Then, as the adult accompanying these two young fellows, I had my second ride with Charles' friend, Dillon.  By then, I felt a lot more confident, and the ride was amazing! 

I had a waterproof camera with film that hasn't been developed yet.  When it is, I'll find some way to work it into a post.

So to those of you approaching geezerhood, parasailing, at least with Adrian and Chris, is amazing and safe and wow!  You're up there looking down about four hundred feet over Cape Cod and the lobster traps with the breeze holding you up and --

It doesn't get much better than this!

Now we're about to eat Charlie's birthday lobster!  Yum!

During my year or so of blogging, I have written lots of posts and many of them contained photos. And it hasn't always been easy. 

You'd go through the whole thing, and the gerbils that used to run the system would decide to go out to lunch - probably a three-martini lunch!  Becuase the post and the photos would sort of disappear, with a lot of work vanishing along with it.  Can I remember what I wrote?  Can I recreate it?  Drats!

And whenever there were challenges to posting blogs or comments, we growled about it.  We blamed it on all of these pesky new members!

This week, I've been posting a bunch of stuff with photos.  And as Active Rain approached and then reached the 100,000 mark, it also reached another important milestone, at least in my book.  I started to realize that they system hasn't gone down in weeks!  It's been smooth as butter!  It loads larger format photos than it used to, and the process has been seamless.

So I don't know what you guys are doing out there in Washington State, but whatever it is, thank you!

There are a lot of things that make Chatham, Massachusetts an utterly charming little town.  There are the old houses in all sorts of interesting architectural styles.  There are lovely little gardens.  Then there are all of the shops along Main Street, with hand-painted signs, unique wares and, yes, window boxes.  Not just window boxes, but window boxes of note.

Some have a sort of red white and blue patriotic theme.

Some of them are pretty simple, with a single type of flower - these look easy enough for even purple thumbed me to grow!

And some are impressively elaborate.

This is a town of many charms, and the flower boxes are certainly making their contribution.

Every summer Friday night in Chathan, is band night.  The whole town shows up in Kate Gould Park to hear the Chatham Band, dressed in smart uniforms that looked really hot - and I mean sweat pouring down your face hot.  I mean picollo sliding all over a sweat covered chin hot. 

It didn't matter what they sounded like.  It was about watching hundreds of familes from this New England town gather at the band shell, kids, dogs and folding chairs in tow. 

They played some medlies - from The Wizard of Oz, Mama Mia and Hootnanny.  Then they did a floot stomping Sousa march, inviting all of the children in the audience to march in step around the band shell.

It's the kind of thing that I imagine happening on summer nights in Lake Woebegone!

This morning, we went out in pouring rain to look for fish with our caption, Russ Peterson of Liveliner Sportfish here in Chatham.  Normally you find lots  of bluefish (sort of the zucchini of fish - people always catch more than they can eat and try to give them away), and if you get lucky, maybe you'll pull in a striped bass that's big enough to not have to throw back!

We started off by checking Captain Russ's lobster traps.  We found some small fish and lots of little crabs that are supposed to be inedible.  There were also two little lobsters that we wound up having to throw back - one was small and the other was practically newborn.

We got soaking wet, even with hooded rain jackets on!  And that was OK, because the fish were jumping.

We caught enough blues to feed a bunch of people and have some left over to give the neighbors.  I pulled in a big one myself, and that's when my camera battery died!    Now bluefish are not among my favorite fish when I get them from my local DC fish market.  But we're planning to eat these guys a couple of hours out of the water, and when they are totally fresh, they're a whole different fish.

Recently there have been a lot of posts on Active Rain about how real estate professionals can establish a relationship that involves becoming the "trusted adviser", and as soon as this concept worked its way into my little brain, trusted advisers have been showing up all around me.  Captain Russ was our trusted adviser on this fishing expedition.  He knew the weather would be OK, if inconvenient.  He knew where the fish were and taught us how to reel them in.  He knew when it was time to turn the boat around and come back to port.  And it was a fun expedition, rain and all.

So it's about seven in the evening and the storm clouds are gone.  They're predicting more than decent weather for at least the next few days, so I can go work on my freckles.  I use SPF 350, so I'm not likely to get a tan unless I spray one on.

It's time to cook bluefish!

Today, I flew from Washington to Providence for Day 1 of my well-deserved vacation.

Flying is clearly not what it was in the days before airline deregulation.  I can remember most people getting pretty dressed up for a trip, complete with eye makeup and curls in the hair.  Now it’s pretty casual.  The guys on each side of me are wearing shorts. 

And when I worked for the old Eastern Airlines, we wore designer uniforms (the largest size was a 10) and stewardesses were forced to quit at age 32 or before that if they got too fat for the tiny uniform.  Today’s “flight attendant” was pushing Medicare with a pot-belly, and he, too, was wearing shorts.

And planes back then were half full – or half empty, depending on how you looked at it.  Today, my filight was  totally full – and I was stuck in the middle seat – although it was the bulkhead, so my teeth were not digging into my kneecaps.

And like real estate, computers and the Internet have revolutionized air travel.  Like many people looking for homes, I began my search for a ticket on-line, finding non-stop flights on Southwest Airlines out of Thurgood Marshall Airport in Baltimore.

Also, like real estate, various airlines charge a wide range of fares, and there is often little to distinguish my cheap seat on Southwest from the high priced carriers that charge double or triple what I paid.  I like to think that with discount real estate brokers, there is a lower level of service than the top-of-the-line quality that my firm offers.

None of the airlines serve real food – at least not anything I would consider eating.  They all take the same care (or lack thereof) of your luggage.  There are options with respect to cost but not really related to service quality.

There is another similarity between airlines and real estate. 

We had a little turbulance – a storm – and we had to circle Providence for over an hour before we could land.  And there was nothing I could do about it except to get white knuckles and pray to St. Christopher ( the patron saint of travelers).  The pilot was my “trusted advisor” in this situation, and luckily, he knew what he was doing.

It reminded me of those times when my clients and I face a little turbulence in a transaction.  It can get pretty white knuckle for them.  They usually have no control.  And it helps if they think of me as their trusted advisor!  I get paid the big bucks because I do the worrying – so they don’t  have to.

So now I'm at the cottage with it's pretty little side garden (I think it's actually the neighbor's garden, but it sure is pretty). 

And we're a quick walk along this path

to the beach, which is deserted today (it's still drizzling) except for the sea gulls! 

And it's a beautiful day - clouds and all!  Wow!

The Dupont Circle Farmers Market is the local Mecca for Washingtonians who take their foods seriously.  The market is open Sunday mornings and is set up on 20th Street between P and Q Streets

The produce is organic and is locally grown.  It’s fresh.  And it tastes different

The peaches are sweet and juicy.  You can eat the tomatoes without worrying about getting botulism.  And for the first time ever, I met some fresh currants!  They’re orange.

There are exotic mushrooms and cute little carrots.

There are few farmers selling meat from animals who actually grew up in a real honest-to-gosh barnyard and pastures where they munched organic grass.  They lead happy, healthy lives with no nasty hormones or chemicals.

If you want to grow an herb garden, you can get some beautiful specimens that got off to a healthy start.

And the flowers around this place are just totally awesome!

And I couldn't resist buying a loaf of rosemary sourdough bread!

I was even amazed at this wool, from happy sheep - although it was a little hared to really appreciate it in the 100 degree heat!

When I get home and take a nice, cold shower, I'll use some of these pure, home made soaps to wash off the sweat!

This time last year, I was showing property to some friends in their late 60's.  We were looking in an area that has a few folks their age, but it's mostly the young and hip.  While we were looking at the house they eventually bought, the husband, one of the country's leading constitutional lawyers, asked what he considered an innocent a question about the demographics.

My response?  My standard -

"Ya know, I can't have this conversation with anyone - not even you guys!  Not even my Mother!  Or I can lose my license and maybe wind up in the slammer!"

When I went over the list of "protected classes", they covered pretty much everything.  And in DC, add to the Federal classes political affiliation, personal appearance and a bunch of other groups - you gotta watch your mouth!

"You mean you cannot give clients information that could impact their quality of life in a particular neighborhood?"  he asked.

He felt strongly that this law, or at least this part of it,  flew in the face of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.  You know - free speech!  He promised that if I ever crossed the line and got busted, he would love to take my case to the Supreme Court.

"Whoa!" I replied!  "This is one test case I don't want to be near!"  And I don't care how many cases he's argued before the Supreme Court - and won!

There have been a lot of times these laws showed up as annoying, both to me and to clients.  At the same time, I can understand why we have them.

I listed a house in my neighborhood once owned by a sweet elderly lady who moved here in the early 1950's - a time when none of the neighbors looked like her.  She drove by the house, saw the sign, and she and her husband tried to get an appointment to see it.  When the agent met them, he suggested they (1) couldn't afford the place - they could, (2) they wouldn't like it - they did, and finally (3) they would not be welcome - they didn't care.  She said buying that house was the worst experience of her life, and she was really glad they did finally get the house - she and her husband had had a happy life there and raised a wonderful family.

Nobody should suffer this kind of discrimination to buy a house.  And I do believe there should be laws to prevent it.

But do the current laws really serve the people they are designed to protect?

Once I had an attractive African American couple bristle at an Open House because I couldn't tell them if the neighborhood was integrated or not.  "We want a diverse neighborhood!  We are the protected class!"   They were stunned.

A relocating young man asked me to show him homes only in the area "Gayborhoods",  That one got a little dicey.  I gave him a copy of the Washington Blade, and he settled on the Dupont or Logan Circle, but I had to let him identify those areas.

Other buyers wanted to be able to walk to a synagogue.  Oops!  Mark up the map for me.  Yes, I knew they probably meant Cleveland Park, but they had to tell me, not the other way around.

I was showing homes to a couple with young children and they wanted a home with nearby playmates.  But once again, it was a conversation we couldn't have.  They kept their eyes open for kid paraphernalia on front porches and back yards.

I do think its very, very wrong to steer people to or away from a neighborhood based on any of the categories covered in these laws, but what if they ask you "Where do the people like me live?  I want to go there!"  That is a question I think we should be able to answer. 

I don't even think about answering these questions.  But I think it's wrong not to be able to without courting the courtroom.

Like most agents, I've found other ways to get people information about the areas they are considering.  There are many websites for the various neighborhood associations, schools and even demographic information.   People can check out old articles from the Washington Post columns, "Where We Live".  I've suggested that people do what I did when I bought in an unfamiliar neighborhood - I drove to my new street at about six in the evening as people were coming home from work.  And I chatted with them. 

Neighbors, pastors, school principals and web sites are all good ways to get information, and perhaps it is better if our clients make these types of judgment calls without putting them through our filters. 

What do you think?